Most of us still have vivid recollections of Dick Cheney shooting his hunting companion and George W. Bush’s numerous mispronunciations, which can make us wonder just how credible our nation’s leaders are today. Don’t worry, times aren’t changing too significantly few politicians complete their terms without making a mockery of themselves at least once. Here are some “whoops” moments in the lives of politicians they’re hoping we’ve forgotten about.
**Attack of the single mom**
Former Vice President Dan Quayle has become known for sticking his foot in his mouth, partially due to his May 1992 critique of TV character Murphy Brown. Quayle made headlines when he slammed Murphy Brown for raising a child without a father.
“It doesn’t help when primetime TV has Murphy Brown, a character who supposedly epitomizes today’s intelligent, highly paid, professional woman, mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice,” said Quayle during a speech about family values to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco.
He may have been better off criticizing the poor father figures featured on TV shows, who far outnumbered single, successful, intelligent mothers like Brown.
Source: cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/09/politics/main508538.shtml
**He says ‘Potatoe,’ Kids say ‘Uh, no’**
Yep, it’s safe to say that 1992 wasn’t Quayle’s best year. While he was helping conduct a spelling bee in Trenton, N.J., on June 15, 1992, Quayle told a boy who spelled his assigned word, “potato,” that he was missing a letter. The boy added an “e” to the end of the word and Quayle congratulated him for figuring out how to spell the word correctly even though, of course, he had spelled it correctly the first time. Quayle blamed the spelling bee card for his confusion over the spelling, but he will forever be remembered primarily for this goof-up.
Source: dailyperspective.com/PrintableVersion.aspx?NLDate=6/15/2006
**Drowning in his own words**
It was one of those “I can’t believe he actually said that” moments when Florida House candidate Tramm Hudson let the following words spill out:
“I grew up in Alabama and I understand and I know this from my own experiences that blacks aren’t the best swimmers or may not even know how to swim,” Hudson allegedly said.
He ended up apologizing, and claimed that it wasn’t like him to say something like that. Problem is, he sure did say it, and you’d think if you’re a politician, you would always think hard before proclaiming the false inadequacies of a racial group.
Source: quinnell.us/sspb/?p=107
**’You people’**
During his run for presidential candidacy in 1992, Ross Perot made a memorable in a bad way speech at a NAACP convention.
Perot meant to get across his sympathy with the troubles African Americans were experiencing during hard economic times, but he quickly extinguished the crowd’s faith in his compassion when he referred them as “you people.” The phrase was received with hostility for its insensitive nature.
Has Perot realized that politics may not be the right career path for him yet?
Source: answers.com/topic/ross-perot
